C$ Threshold and Chatter Boxes.....

[Anonymous]

Chatter boxes are leaving a lot behind especially after the first hour of searching a tough site. C$ solves that problem and lets one cherry pick those areas with ease. This works for me- The sensitivity is a coarse setting for a particular site based on ground minerals and amount of small ferrous trash I do not want to hear bleeding thru into my headphones. After getting a good ground balance, I start the Threshold at -5 and sweep for a few minutes in the area I will later search. If it is quite, I increase the sensitivity and start again, if noisy, I DECREASE the THRESHOLD in increments of 10-25 until I find "relatively, quite, stable audio" over my area. Then use smaller increments to fine tune it dead on. If I never find quite audio at -95, then my sensitivity is too high so I reduce it and start the procedure over again at -5 Threshold. This method works as Mr. Payne pointed out- 1)it allows one to get max depth (ie.loud signal strength) on keepers, for a given amount of sensitivity, 2) while eliminating background noise from a)mineralization and b)ferrous discrimination bleed thru so you can mentally work 3) fatigue free with a 4) silent search detector and 5) cover more area, more effectively as others missed many keepers since their signals often blend into the background noise often refered to as CHATTER. 6) Don't buy a "Chatter box", buy a C$!!!

 

[Anonymous]

<img src="/metal/html/oh.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":O"> Hmmm...I am not sure I understand the concept of "chatter"--are you talking about unstable falsing coming through a baseline threshold hum, or are you talking about multiple trash hits coming through??

 

[Anonymous]

Copied that one to my "Coinstrike Top Tips" file... thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Most detectors more than 5 years old do not discriminate small ferrous trash silently, they "chattered" all over the site. "Turn on and Go" units with fixed ground balance also chattered in areas of high mineralization. Put the two together and you have the "site from hell" unless you have a C$ or Excel.
Even the newer ones made by other mfrs advertised as "Silent Search" - do it for the most part but still chatter in areas where the mineralization and the ferrous trash is higher than normal if the sensitivity is too high. Result- Good keepers at depth "blend in with the chatter" and I believe most are missed. The only recourse was to reduce the sensitivity or gain (or both on some models) which results in a big reduction in "signal strength in the headphones on all targets at all depths". Result-Good keepers at depth can be missed because their signal is completly lost due to the lower settings.
Here comes the C$ with several advantages. 1) ability to very precisely ground balance and 2) "Ground Track" accurately which greatly reduces or eliminates chattering caused by extreme mineralization. When it is not enought by itself due to running too much sensitivity in conjunction with high concentrations of small ferrous trash like square nails around an old homesead, the 3) negative Threshold setting makes this detector run silent with "very little loss of signal strength at all depths" if adjusted in SMALL increments just enough to get the desired effect. This allows one to get higher than normal audio siganl strength on most keepers at greater than normal depths one typically reaches in a given area with a typical detector stabilized (no chatter) for that site.
I always shoot for the highest sensitivity a site can handle while maintaining detection of all targets individually and then dial in any amount of negative threshold that will keep the detector from falsing (chattering) with every swing. That method allows for a true silent search with excellent signal strength on all targets, at all depths, so one can concentrate on proper swinging, griding off the site, and listening for faint targets in the fringe areas of the magnetic field.
I then set up a hotter setting and a colder one and lock them into seperate memories. Any productive site is searched by all three settings as each one can find keepers missed by the other settings as no site is perfectly uniformed in distribution of minerals and ferrous trash.
When you get chattering with the hotter setting, just raise the coil several inches to eliminate it audiably, and immediatly lower the coil when you no longer see negative numbers flashing on the LCD.